Historical Public Transit Systems vs. Their Modern Equivalents

Interactive maps of public transit, then and now.
Spencer Dam destroyed by floodwaters.

The Missouri River Flood Hits a Historic Native American Homeland

In the wake of devastating floods, one writer reflects on the importance of place to Great Plains Indians.

Remembering Emmett Till

The ruins of a country store suggest that locals have neglected the memory of Emmett Till’s murder.

On the Range

Excavations at a ranch in the southern High Plains show how generations of people adapted to an iconic Western landscape.

Signs of Return

Photography as History in the U.S. South.
Hand-drawn map proposing the Appalachian Trail

An Appalachian Trail: A Project in Regional Planning

In its original concept, the Appalachian Trail was a wildly ambitious plan to reorganize the economic geography of the eastern United States.

The Keeper of the Secret

After decades of silence, one man pursues accountability, apologies and the meaning of racial reconciliation.
Art installation, "Public Soil Memory for the Plantationocene" at the Sandy Spring Museum

How the Soil Remembers Plantation Slavery

What haunts the land? When two artists dig up the tangled history of slavery and soil exhaustion in Maryland, soil memory reveals ongoing racial violence.

Appalachian Women Fought for Workers Long Before They Fought for Jobs

Two new books recount the leading role women have played in Appalachian social justice movements.

War Happens in Dark Places, Too

White southern men who didn't own slaves often escaped to the swamps to avoid conscription and wait out the Civil War.

Dry Times in the Highest State: Colorado’s Prohibition Movement

Placing Colorado’s early adoption of Prohibition in social and political context.
Two white men stone a Black man who is lying on the ground.

1919 Race Riots in Chicago: A Look Back 100 Years Later

A century after the tragedies that shaped the nation's race relations.

Black Farmworkers in the Central Valley: Escaping Jim Crow for a Subtler Kind of Racism

"The difference between here and the South is just that — it's hidden."

When Nazis Took Manhattan

In 1939, 20,000 American Nazis rallied in New York. It was billed as a "Pro-American" rally, but championed Hitler and fascism.

The Alamo Is a Rupture

It’s time to reckon with the true history of the mythologized Texas landmark—and the racism and imperialism it represents.
Street in Chinatown, Los Angeles

Remapping LA

Before California was West, it was North and it was East: an arrival point for both Mexican and Chinese immigrants.

Colonial Williamsburg Serves Up The Past So You Can Try A Taste Of History

The living-history museum in Virginia re-creates 18th-century recipes in its restaurants using ingredients grown in the traditional way onsite. But some modern palates aren't too keen on the taste.

Capturing Black Bottom, a Detroit Neighborhood Lost to Urban Renewal

A new exhibit at the Detroit Public Library, displays old images of the historic African American neighborhood in its final days.
Landscape shot of Los Angeles, with Hollywoodland sign in the background.

True West: Searching for the Familiar in Early Photos of L.A. and San Francisco

A look at early photography reveals the nuances of California's early development.
Grand Canyon

Grand Canyon National Park Turns 100: How a Place Once Called 'Valueless' Became Grand

As Grand Canyon National Park celebrates its centennial, it’s worth recalling the peculiar way the canyon became grand.

The Destruction of Black Wall Street

Tulsa’s Greenwood neighborhood was a prosperous center of Black wealth. Until a white mob wiped it out.
Children looking at an architectural model of a city.

Imagining a Past Future: Photographs from the Oakland Redevelopment Agency

City planner John B. Williams — and the photographic archive he commissioned — give us the opportunity to complicate received stories of failed urban renewal.

Lightning Struck

How an Atlanta neighborhood died on the altar of Super Bowl dreams.

Before Black Lung, the Hawks Nest Tunnel Disaster Killed Hundreds

A forgotten example of the dangers of silica, the toxic dust behind the modern black lung epidemic in Appalachia.
Two people photographed in Zion National Park.

When the Park Ranger Was Not Your Friend

Early 20th century National Park Service Rangers were a notoriously rough-and-tumble lot.

How Not to Build a “Great, Great Wall”

A timeline of border fortification, from 1945 to the Trump Era.

Pancho Villa, Prostitutes and Spies: The U.S.-Mexico Border Wall’s Wild Origins

President Trump's trip to the border Thursday to demand a $5.7 billion wall marks another chapter in the boundary's tortured history.
Aftermath of Great Molasses Flood in Boston.

The Great Molasses Flood of 1919: The Day Boston Was Swamped by a Deadly Wave

100 years ago, an enormous steel tank ruptured, sending a torrent of brown syrup on a deadly path through Boston's North End.
Formal portrait photo of Harland Bartholomew in suit and tie

One Man Zoned Huge Swaths of Our Region for Sprawl, Cars, and Exclusion

Bartholomew’s legacy demonstrates with particular clarity that planning is never truly neutral; value judgments are always embedded in engineers' objectives.
Cruise ship depicted on Red Star Line dinner menu.

Traveling While Black Across the Atlantic Ocean

Following in the footsteps of 20th century African Americans, Ethelene Whitmire experiences a 21st century transatlantic crossing.